I have been working during my whole career in the field of applied research either in industrial (state owned) research institutes (Research Institute for Plastics, Bay Zoltan Nonprofit Ltd. for Applied Research), for industrially owned research institutes (Furukawa Electric Institute of Technology) and directly for the industry (as a private consultant and and now for Medicontur Medical Engineering Ltd) but not for the universities or for the academy (although I did spend some time as post doc in the US). I had, however, several contacts and joint projects with colleagues belonging to the "academic" sphere. My impression is that several industrial employers do not trust people without industrial background and practice while in many cases the "academic" researchers bit despise the colleagues from the industry. There are, of course, exceptions. Nowadays in leading high tech industries the problems can be even more exciting than theoretical problems. According to my experience the advantage of applied research you can always test in the practice whether your idea works or not. The same is not always decided in academic research.

I have been working during my whole career in the field of applied research either in industrial (state owned) research institutes (Research Institute for Plastics, Bay Zoltan Nonprofit Ltd. for Applied Research), for industrially owned research institutes (Furukawa Electric Institute of Technology) and directly for the industry (as a private consultant and and now for Medicontur Medical Engineering Ltd) but not for the universities or for the academy (although I did spend some time as post doc in the US). I had, however, several contacts and joint projects with colleagues belonging to the "academic" sphere. My impression is that several industrial employers do not trust people without industrial background and practice while in many cases the "academic" researchers bit despise the colleagues from the industry. There are, of course, exceptions. Nowadays in leading high tech industries the problems can be even more exciting than theoretical problems. According to my experience the advantage of applied research you can always test in the practice whether your idea works or not. The same is not always decided in academic research.

FWIW my experience has been grounded in industry. Although I did return to the academy temporarily for a doctorate which was a culture shock. Then returned to industry. I concluded that both industry and the academy can work together to solve complex problems. The DProf (doctorate in professional practice) is good for harnessing the strengths of practice and academy.

Thanks for first answers. I came to industry with big knowledge and experience, at least I though so. The first question of my first client was how many years experience I have in industrial sector. It was for me a shock, I understood his question later as I noticed that both worlds are different and people not always understand each other correctly. Right now I am free from such problems and I can work with both groups and I finding it every time very exciting.

I am currently working in academy but I had a short experience in industry. I actually prefer to work in academy since I like to work more on the development of proof of concept in place to work on a specific patent-related project.

My activity was mainly in the field of applied research in industry. I chose this path because it gave me better perspectives for development and promotion. Industry research offers the opportunity to see the materialization of your ideas and results of your work. According to my data, there are not many cases when people with a university career pass into industrial research and vice versa. I fully agree with Dr.Banhegyi that in industry the management do not trust people without industrial background and practice, and university researchers do not appreciate industry research too much.

I was involved in both and found equally interesting, if goals are quite clear

I think that

the two are very connected, especially in applied fields!

I have met a lot of people with PhD in Germany who were working in industry after PhD studies. They were typically working in R&D departments and were representing companies as specialists. In Poland, I met as well a lot of PhDs in industry unfortunately PhD title means nothing in my country. These people are doing the same tasks as people without promotion it is sad for me. What I have not experienced too often are people who were working longer time in industry and made a decision to go back to university.

I agree with Salwa and Mushtaq that work in industry and academical sectors can be interesting. I am wondering only if you were managed to come back to university after longer period of work in industry. Many times it is quite difficult because e.g. you are not authors of new scientific papers and for many universities it is one of the key factors when they are hiring you. The second key factor is salary which is typically much lower at universities as in industry and the third one are problems in administration at universities which do not occur in industry.